What Honor Means
by Fallen Angel Of The Forgotten
Summary: AU. Alford rode off to slay the king of the Mazoku as ordered by the Church. Unfortunately, it was only after the deed was done that he realized not all was as it seemed.


**A.N. – **Inspired by Voltaire's _Crusade. _

**Summary – **Alford rode off to slay the king of the Mazoku as ordered by the Church. Unfortunately, it was only after the deed was done that he realized not all was as it seemed.

What Honor Means

"_Have you heard? The Mazoku are back!"_

"_Is it true they're from Hell itself?"_

"_Apparently the old man down the street saw one. He said their tongues are forked and their eyes are red!"_

"_Evil."_

"_Impure."_

"_Alford will surely slay them."_

"Alford, once again the Church has need of you and your holy sword. An infestation of Mazoku, those loathsome demons from Hell itself, have appeared in our lands. We ask that you drive them out, and kill their King. Stop this, once and for all!"

Alford knelt, his armor light on his body. "By my father's honor as well as my own, I will do this."

"Then go my son. In the name of this Church and our God, strike down these worthless invaders!"

* * *

The world had been split into two factions: human and Mazoku. The Mazoku, the magic users, were evil, and so denied by the Church. The Church itself had taken over in place of leaders for the humans, and told their people what was what and who to trust. Mazoku were demons, and demons were evil, the Church leaders told them, and so long as they never gave aid to a demon, be they old or young, they would be protected and sheltered by the Church.

Alford's father had been tasked with the same job Alford now held, except his father had refused to do it. He had told the Church leaders that they were foolish extremists who weren't looking at the whole picture – that if they'd just look a bit closer, they'd see that the Mazoku were just like humans.

The Church had said otherwise. They had called the man a heathen and a heretic, claiming that he was saving demons and killing humans. In the end, Alford's father had been forced to leave. Alford had seen him ride off, his back straight and stern, and silently wondered why he had gone against the Church.

The Church had given the people everything they could ever want. They had given safety and food and water, and all they asked in return was this simple deed. _Slay the Mazoku, no matter what. _It really wasn't so hard to understand. Alford listened and obeyed and attempted to make up for his father's foolery, and had eventually gained prestige. The Church now trusted him, and his fellow humans saw him as a sign of truth and justice.

"Alford-sama, we've arrived. The leader of the Mazoku is holed up in the fortress just a little ways from here." The man who had come with him said. He had an entire group of soldiers there with him, to give him back up. They were there on the Church's orders, which just went on to further establish how much the Church cared. _I will have to give my thanks to Lord Nero when this is all over._

"Alright. Stay here; I'll go deal with this so we can get back home quickly." Alford gently tapped his horse forward again, and began to ride off.

"As you wish. We'll wait by the gate Alford-sama and keep out any invading fools who may try to give the king some back up. You can perform the execution at your leisure." The leader of the men, Hadoc, said with a smile that was oddly gentle. The group turned and began to ride back towards the gate, the sound of the horses' hooves soon distant in his ears.

The "fortress" turned out to be an area of fire and ruins. Alford, unwilling to risk his mount's life, pulled it over to the side of the road and had it stand behind a small group of half-broken walls. Satisfied, he pulled his sword out – the sword his father had left behind – and moved into the ruins. The heat of the flames was enough to make him sweat, but the road was wide and a bit of maneuvering on his part kept him from going up in flames.

He must have been traveling for about fifteen minutes, and just when he thought that he might need to get back on his horse, a voice rang out in the darkness.

"Who are you?"

Alford whirled around, expecting to find someone behind him, but no; the voice was coming from _all around him. _

"Who are you? Answer me."

"I am Alford! I am the slayer of Mazoku and the Church's best warrior! Show yourself!"

He honestly didn't think that he would get an answer, and he certainly didn't expect the Mazoku to emerge from the shadows. But he did. He came from a cave that Alford had thought was a pit of shadows, walking with no weapon on his person. At first glance, Alford had to force himself to rub his eyes and look again.

The person before him looked _human. _Black wavy hair surrounded a pale, thin face. His black eyes held dark shadows underneath them – a true sign of fatigue. His white shirt and black pants were torn and frayed at the edges, and held several long tears in them, as though he'd been stripping away material with his hands. He looked thin, almost unhealthy, but his eyes held a determined glow.

This time, it was Alford that asked the question.

"Who are you?"

The person – more of a boy really – sighed. "Who do you think? I am the king of this land, Yuri Shibuya. I am also the Mazoku you've been looking for, I imagine."

"_You're _the Mazoku king?" Alford looked again. This couldn't be right. But it was. He had black hair and eyes – the sign of the demon king. How he'd missed it before, Alford wasn't sure. "You're certainly arrogant, coming to me like this!"

"I'm not arrogant, I'm just tired." The king said. He looked it too. "I want this ridiculous war to be over, and I want the Church to stop slaughtering my people for being different."

Different? Different indicated being the same as them on some level. "You're nothing like us!" Alford snarled, raising his sword to point at the demon. "You and your kind are brought up in a den of sin! Your very existence is hated by God himself! How dare you claim that this war is ridiculous?"

The boy's eyes changed then; the darkness in them seemed to flow forward and then back like an ocean wave. "You aren't seeing it." The boy whispered sadly. "You don't understand what you're doing; you only know that you've been told to do it, and that it's important to your survival. You are slaughtering innocents, all because the Church doesn't like them or doesn't agree with their views."

"That's a load of bull!" Alford screamed, and charged the king. A flash and a step; a sword appeared in the boy's hand to block his own. They both pushed forward, locking their swords to the hilt.

"It's not a load of bull." The boy uttered, quiet. "Without knowing what you're doing, you're charging into a fight against some convenient 'outside enemy'. You are obeying orders without thinking over what performing the orders _means. _And why? All because you want glory."

"No." Alford hissed, pushing and trying to knock the king back. "Because your kind turned my father against me."

"_My _kind did nothing like that. If your father said something in our defense, it was probably because he saw us for our true selves, and grew tired of watching you murderers kill us!" The king pushed him back. Alford cried out as he went flying. He was expecting a sword between the ribs, but the king just stood and watched as he landed on the ground.

"You're a fool, Alford. Stop this now, please, before it goes too far." The sword was tossed away, as though it had no value to it.

"Never!" Alford picked himself up again and leveled his sword.

"Why are you doing this? Because someone told you to? You know nothing of us—"

"I know that you are evil, and that you are the scourge of the land! And that is all I need to know to deal with the likes of you, _demon!_" Alford yelled. Inwardly, he was reeling. He had heard the Mazoku were fearsome monsters that could blind their enemies with a single look. But this creature, this _king _seemed to embody the exact opposite. He almost seemed… normal.

But he was still a demon. And so Alford rushed him, hitting him with a shoulder and forcing him down onto the ground. Something in his head chimed, urging him to stop and reconsider. The demon did not struggle, did not fight back or try to get away. It didn't curse him or even beg for its life. It just lay there, staring up at Alford with eyes filled with remorse… and understanding.

Those eyes haunted Alford in ways he would never forget. Even as he thrust his sword into the demon's neck, ending its life and watched its blood cover the ground around it, something in him continued to balk and scream that something was wrong.

It was as he was standing and turning to go back to his horse, sword still bloody that he heard it. A tiny whimper.

Whirling around, he was confronted by a sight unlike any other. A group of children were slowly making their way out of the cave the Mazoku had stood in front of. Most of them were clad in dirt-and-soot stained clothes, and had fear etched onto their faces.

At the sight of the Mazoku's corpse, tears welled up in their eyes, and they looked at Alford in terror.

Alford knelt. "It's alright now, the demon is gone. You can all go home."

It surprised him when one of the children, a little girl, came forward and pushed him away. "Go away! You're not welcome here!" she yelled.

Alford was stunned. What was the girl talking about? "W-what are you talking about? It's safe now—"

"Why did you kill him?" the girl yelled again, tears streaming down her face as she took a step forward, her brown curls bouncing around her face as she did so. "He was only trying to protect us! He didn't threaten you! So why did you kill him?"

_What?_

"B-but… he was a Mazoku!"

"So?" This time it was a boy that spoke, blond and princely-looking. "He said it didn't matter if we were human or not, he'd still protect us! He was gonna keep us safe until the massacre was over, and then he was going to take us back home!"

"The soldiers ignored us," another boy whispered, "they didn't even help us before. It was him that saved us! He was the only one that made sure we were okay! That we weren't hungry or thirsty!"

"He brought us water and food, and gave us a warm place to sleep."

"He healed our wounds."

"He _saved _us!"

"And you _killed _him!"

The accusations and tales came one after another, the children getting more and more upset with each word. Alford said nothing, too numb and disquieted by what he was hearing to do anything. The king had said that he was foolish, that he wasn't _listening. _The children were telling him that he had just killed a man who had protected them. A man who had been a Mazoku, but had saved human children and kept them safe from the dangers while human soldiers from Alford's own side had ignored them.

"_You are slaughtering innocents and all because the Church doesn't like them, or doesn't agree with their views."_

"_You don't understand anything."_

"_Stop this."_

The evidence was rapidly beginning to pile up, and it was giving Alford a bad feeling in the pit of himself. Standing, he made his way back to the horse and rode off, leaving the children to weep over their protector, who had not been like Alford, and yet who had been so much better than him. He rode in silence when the gate came into view, and picked up his men. Hadoc seemed oddly smug about something, and the men proud, but Alford didn't notice it. He was too busy thinking.

_Is it really true? Did I kill a man for all the wrong reasons?_

Word of his killing of the king reached the Church before his group did; he was waved in with banners and cheers and cries of happiness. And then the pope himself stood before him, and told him how happy God was with him, and how he had done a great service, and Heaven would look forward to having him. But Alford wasn't listening. He was still thinking.

_Was my father right? Was I wrong? I must be, because nothing makes sense anymore._

"I was wrong." He whispered later that night in his bed, and rolled over into his pillow, silently crying for what he had done, and the lives that had been lost in the meaningless bloodshed.

The next morning he rode out before anyone was awake, back straight and tall, leaving behind only his sword and a note.

_I'm sorry._

* * *

He rode east, the direction his father had taken when Alford had last seen him. He had heard of some Mazoku still in hiding; he would go to them, and make up for his mistakes, even if it meant pitting his own people against him.

For the sake of the fallen king, he would do this.


End file.
